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<title>Fervent as a Flame by lena-in-a-red-dress (CSIGurlie07)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23986351">Fervent as a Flame</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CSIGurlie07/pseuds/lena-in-a-red-dress'>lena-in-a-red-dress (CSIGurlie07)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supergirl (TV 2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Broadway AU, Costars to Lovers, F/F, SuperCorp, Wicked the Musical AU, stage acting au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 06:22:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,051</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23986351</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CSIGurlie07/pseuds/lena-in-a-red-dress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The broadway Wicked AU plot bunny no-one asked for.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>88</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kara plays Glinda and is cast opposite her boyfriend Mike playing Fiyero. When the original Elphaba drops out for a role in a more highly anticipated show, the producers decide to drum up some press by casting Lena Luthor, a tv/film actor of moderate success.</p><p>Kara is a little miffed that a) the producers cast Lena without doing a read test, and b) she has to teach a newcomer all the blocking when she should be focusing on her own work, and c) that Lena is getting notoriety from her upcoming jaunt on stage when actual experienced stage actors were passed over.</p><p>But fine. Whatever. She’s a professional.</p><p>Kara’s admittedly a little frosty when she first meets Lena, barely managing a smile, and giving her only the bare minimum the blocking for their first run through of “Loathing.” Her resentment as Glinda isn’t completely acting as Lena refers to the sheet music at the start of the song, but Lena doesn’t bat an eye.</p><p>She meets Kara note for note, glare for glare, and the lack of blocking doesn’t even matter, because the rest of the cast gives way before her as she stalks towards Kara, mesmerizing in her unexpected stage presence.</p><p>But it’s not until days later that Kara realizes her casting isn’t a fluke. She comes back early from lunch to catch the tail end of a rehearsal of “Defying Gravity” with just Lena, the director, music director, and stage manager. Kara sits in the back of the house and stares as Lena belts out a range that makes Kara’s heart beat faster.</p><p>Lena belts out her final rallying cry, and the music cuts out, and Kara sits in stunned silence as the director joins Lena on stage to give notes. Lena looks barely winded, and Kara realizes her casting isn’t just a publicity stunt– Lena has talent.</p><p>Raw, magical talent.</p><p>After that, Kara softens. She apologizes, and commits to bringing Lena up to speed. She offers any additional rehearsal Lena might need. They’re in this, together.</p><p>Opening night closes with a standing ovation and an encores. As soon as the curtain has them hidden from sight, Kara flings her arms around Lena and kisses her cheek, green make up and all.</p><p>As they push into the run, Kara and Lena become best friends, frequently posting together on social media. They spend time together off stage too– so much so that Mike complains he doesn’t see enough of Kara.</p><p>Kara starts to feel… different. The love songs seem to take on a new meaning, until Kara’s not sure who she’s singing them for. When Mike breaks up with her, she feels guilty but not devastated.</p><p>Their social medias fill with comments of #goals, #iwishtheyweregay, and all manner of innocently suggestive ideas that quietly work their way into Kara’s consciousness.</p><p>One night, the cast goes to a bar. It’s laid back, comfortable, and largely quiet on their Monday dark night. Lena and Kara are next to each other, as they so often are, but in their booth a new intimacy slowly creeps over them.</p><p>“Thank you,” Lena says softly. “For everything. I was really nervous about getting back to stagework, but you’ve made this experience truly unforgettable.”</p><p>Kara smiles, taking Lena’s hand. “I could say the same thing.”</p><p>Their eyes meet, and a sudden silence stretches between them to match the heat that reaches up through their joined hands to hook behind Kara’s ribs.</p><p>Slowly, Kara leans in. Lena meets her halfway in a gentle kiss that sears from stem to stern.</p><p>In that moment Kara discovers what the poets mean, when a heart starts to sing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mirroring reality, Lena gets injured closed to the end of their run.</p><p>It’s been a hell of a show, at the end of a three show day, and everyone is running ragged. It’s the perfect storm of mishaps: Lena’s costume gets tangled rushing to her place for the end of Act 1, the tech clipping her to the platform rig has three voices in his ear and doesn’t notice the latch doesn’t quite catch, and then as the platform starts to rise with Lena on it, it shudders and quakes.</p><p>Lena stumbles, foot catching on the same malfunctioning costume that made her late to places, and goes down– clipping her hip on the edge of the platform, she tumbles off while the platform is almost to its full height.</p><p>Kara doesn’t hear the fall over the crescendoing music, but she sure as hell notices when the score she knows by heart vamps once, then twice, waiting for the cue that Lena is ready to go. It never comes.</p><p>She breaks character just as the curtain closes, and the stage manager activates the show paused announcement. The stage lights come up, and Kara pelts for the group of concerned cast and crew gathering around the lump on the floor.</p><p>Kara sees Lena, sees the raised platform, and feels her heart drop down to her sparkling shoes.</p><p>“Lena!” The crowd parts for her. Their relationship is private even to their castmates, but their friends know how close they are. They’ve been inseparable for the better part of a year. “What happened?!”</p><p>The tech who’d been responsible for the safety rig is pale as a ghost, shaking as she swallows. “I don’t… I don’t know– she was clipped in I swear–”</p><p>Kara bends over Lena, taking a green-painted hand into her own. “Lena, can you hear me?”</p><p>Lena doesn’t stir.</p><p>“I think she hit her head,” Siobhan says in a strained whisper. She has her hands braced to stabilize Lena’s neck and chin, and Kara recalls that she once served as an EMT in her hometown.</p><p>That scares Kara. More than the way Lena’s legs are twisted in the skirt of her costume, and more than the sickening bend of Lena’s other arm, which is unmistakably broken.</p><p>Lena finally begins to come around when the ambulance comes and even though she’s confused and in pain, she urges Kara to stay and finish the show.</p><p>“Siobhan can understudy,” she mutters, as hands carefully strap a neck brace under her chin.</p><p>“So can Eve,” Kara retorts. The show will go on, without them. “I’ll meet you at the hospital.”</p><p>“Only four shows left,” Lena insists. She blinks heavily, eyes creased in pain. “They came to see you, Kara.”</p><p>That’s what makes Kara pause. Siobhan touches her shoulder and leans in to speak low in her ear. “There’ll be a lot of waiting once they get to the hospital. You could finish the show by the time they even get the results back.”</p><p>Now she wonders about breach of contract and whether she’d be penalized for leaving when she herself isn’t injured, and whether she even cares. But it’s the sound of the concerned voices beyond the curtain that makes her hesitate, and Lena’s tightening grip that finally makes up her mind for her.</p><p>“Okay. I’ll stay. But I’ll be there as soon as I can.”</p><p>She can text Alex, and have her wait with Lena until she can get there herself. She can’t stand the thought of Lena in the hospital alone.</p><p>And she does. Kara finishes the show on autopilot, her thoughts with Lena, and then changes out in record time to speed to the hospital. Sure enough, Lena is still waiting for the results of her scans, resting under the help of a sedative.</p><p>Alex relinquishes her seat to Kara and gives her the rundown of what they know so far: probable head trauma, confirmed compound fracture of the right ulna, and possible internal contusions… but she’ll live.</p><p>She won’t be on stage again for a while, and not in time to finish her contract, but she’ll live.</p><p>The next night is dark night, and Kara spends every moment of the next 24hrs at Lena’s side. She’s there when Lena opens her eyes and laughs breathlessly at the sparkles still glued to Kara’s cheeks and the absurd Glinda curls tucked into the neck of her hoodie. She’s there when the results come back, confirming the concussion and three broken ribs and that surgery will be needed to set Lena’s arm. And she’s there when Lena looks up at her, and tells her once again that the show must go on.</p><p>“It’s up to you now,” Lena murmurs. “For both of us.”</p><p>Kara enters what would be their final week together, alone. Siobhan is an excellent understudy, but Kara can’t fully tune in. She double and triple checks her presets, checks with the riggers before every show to make sure that what happened to Lena won’t happen again, but every Defying Gravity leaves Kara’s hands shaking and her voice strangled in her throat.</p><p>Every night she returns home to Lena with tears in her eyes. It’s not the same without her, and Kara hates it. She hates that their final week was taken from them. That it was taken from Lena.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Lena whispers.</p><p>“It scares me,” Kara confesses. “You almost– you could have–”</p><p>“I know. But I didn’t. It was just an accident. It won’t happen again, I promise.”</p><p>And it doesn’t. The riggers double up to verify Siobhan is hooked in properly, and the stage manager asks for double confirmation from each. But still, Kara can’t shake the tremors that grip her through intermission. She slogs through a week of shows with a heavy heart, and her final night opens to a packed house full of thunderous applause.</p><p>She should be exultant, thrilled, flattered, but it all feels wrong. She makes it through Act 1, but by the end of intermission she’s fighting tears. She inches towards the end of her tenure note by note, and by the time they reach “For Good”, she can barely speak.</p><p>“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives, for a reason…”</p><p>Siobhan looks at her with tears in her eyes, as though she too knows how wrong this feels.</p><p>It should be Lena on stage with her. It should be Lena she’s singing to.</p><p>It’s Lena who needs to know how much she’s changed Kara’s life.</p><p>Lena, who needs to know that Kara doesn’t share Glinda’s uncertainty. She has been changed for the better, in every way.</p><p>As a performer.</p><p>As a person.</p><p>As a lover.</p><p>“But– I have been changed for good.”</p><p>The melody deepens, readying for Siobhan’s response. Kara closes her eyes against the burning tears.</p><p>“It well may be, that we will never meet again.”</p><p>Kara’s heart jolts in her chest. Her eyes fly open, and Siobhan smiles at her, squeezing her hands as her lips stay shut, as a familiar voice continues to sing.</p><p>A ripple of gasps issues across the audience, and muffled squeals of joy give voice to the elation in Kara’s own heart as she turns to see Lena slowly crossing the stage towards her.</p><p>Lena moves slowly, but without assistance, with her arm in a sling and a smile on her face.</p><p>“So much of me, is made of what I learned from you.”</p><p>Her voice lacks its normal power thanks to her tender ribs, but the microphone clipped to her ear carries it loud and clear throughout the theater.</p><p>“You’ll be with me,” she sings, eyes locked on Kara’s, “like a handprint on my heart.”</p><p>When Kara joins her for their final duet, their fingers meet and lace together, filling Kara with the warmth that’s been missing ever since the fall. By the time they finish, they’re both crying.</p><p>“I do believe I have been changed for the better…”</p><p>“Because I knew you…”</p><p>“Because I knew you…”</p><p>“I have been changed for good.”</p><p>Kara gasps a sob, into her mic, even as her lips spread into a beaming smile. Then, Lena leans in and kisses her. Fireworks spark all the way down to Kara’s toes, and she pulls Lena closer to cup her face with both hands, freeing Lena’s fingers to tangle in the skirt of Glinda’s gown.</p><p>They part for breath to an audience roaring in delight, applause and cheers tumbling together in Kara’s ears as Lena offers one last smile.</p><p>"For good.”</p><p>The finality in the whisper speaks multitudes.</p><p>I love you.</p><p>Thank you.</p><p>It promises a forever, that’s only just getting started.</p>
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